BEIJING -- The terrorists killed earlier this year in the northwestern Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region had planned an attack targeting the Beijing Olympic Games, a senior Chinese official said here on Sunday.

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Chinese police smashed a terrorist gang in January in Urumqi, capital of Xinjiang, killing two and arresting 15 others. Knives, axes and books about terrorism were seized.

"Obviously, the gang had planned an attack targeting the Olympics," said Wang Lequan, chief of the Xinjiang autonomous regional committee of the Communist Party of China on the sidelines of the national parliamentary session.

The group was said to have collaborated with the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM), a group the United Nations labeled a terrorist organization in 2002.

"The Olympic Games slated for this August is a big event, but there are always a few people who conspire sabotages. It is no longer a secret now," said Wang.

"Those terrorists, saboteurs and secessionists are to be battered resolutely, no matter what ethnic group they are from," said the official.